LA tossers

I wrote three weeks ago and told the LA we would be late filing our S&LT update for Tribunal as the S&LT was busy and can't see SA until next week/

Oh, they said, I think we will be objecting to that. You've known about Tribunal since February.

So I wrote to SENDIST and explained the delay and why it was in the best interests of the child to have all the evidence before Tribunal etc.

Today I check with Tribunal and LA have filed NOTHING themsleves. Deadline was last Tuesday. NOTHING. Cheeky little shits. They are clearly going to be late with their updates and they haven't sent in their updates S&LT and still they wanted to refuse my open and transparent application.

I think that all evidence will be accepted whenever it appears if it was produced by a tribunal witness, as they can just talk to it on the day and having it in writing makes the panel's job easier and allows the LA to have advanced warning.

I think that mostly, LA evidence is accepted because they are the ones with the means to appeal so the tribunal would wish to appear fair. Also, the majority of tribunal panel members now are ex LA employees. Shouldn't be allowed but it is. I think it is a serious issue that there isn't a balance of parent panel members too.

Sendist then register the appeal within 10 days, & will set a provisional date and notify the LA

LA then have 32 days to respond to sendist, copied to me

What about reports etc that come in during the wait for the appeal, or any issues settled locally in the meantime? What if I have comments to make to the LA's initial response? Presume all this can be submittd late, but would it usually be accepted?

No working. I understand and from a selfish point of you I want you out too, and in my house, working privately with my ds, but really and truly, you need to stay there, in the corrupt system, with disgruntled parents attacking you for things you can't control.

Have to agree with above. I requested tribunal as soon as the statement was finalised and have been 'working' with the lea since then to try and find common ground. However with only a few weeks till tribunal they have decided that he does need the support stated by ots and salts etc and are now prepared to give in. In my honest opinion it has been nothing but a timewasting tactic designed to 'loose' those parents who can not face the fight/are not aware of their right to do so, and delay provision for those who will really push for it. I think its nothing short of disgraceful and judging by the views on here seems to be common place. Is there anyone we can complain to about this?

But, 'it's all about the children' as the LA Inclusion officer told me.

How they can live with themselves I don't know. I can understand people in tough situations, lying their way out on occasion through force of circumstance. But this is a job requirement - here's the law but we do it like this, now go lie to parents.

Our LA will never give in as they would rather be forced by Tribunal than concede.

Again, 'it's all about the children'. You really wouldn't believe it until you're in it would you?

you certainly wouldn't, I can sometimes hear myself talking to the ombudsman and I think I would probably find some of what I say hard to accept if I didn't have personal experience, perhaps this is why so much is left without investigation or is not upheld?

The whole tribunal system was set up as a last resort. Sadly the system as it stands is heavily weighted against the child/parent. For many independent witnesses whose responses won't be tainted by the priorities of their employer - the LEA & legal representation are an impossible dream.

Instead LEA's treat it as part of a standard process to "weed out" all but the richest/most determined parents to ration front line services. Even if they "lose" they've won in that they havee succeeded in having to supply much needed services for an extra valuable 6 months to a year of a child's life. If they totally ignore tribunal findings - not a lot happens really to individual officers.

The cost of the paper pushers used in the weeding out process is never taken into account by them, (think of MP's voting for their own redundancies/pension cuts and you get the idea). Nor is the basic concept of helping the children as intended by the tax payers that pay their wages.

I honestly feel that assessment for statementing should be done by a central body, not financed from local authorities. Local authorities should retain the duty to implement but there needs to be proper financial penalties for failure to do so imposed. This would reduce some of the post code lottery by default.

Oh and the retained last resort tribunal should have ex teachers, parents, salts etc on the panel as opposed to being composed mostly of ex lea employees.

tiredof - a very good point actually. To those who haven't gone through what we have, we probably sound like complete loons. We must be irrational, unreasonable, vexatious as no LA would get away with letting their staff break the law as part and parcel of their daily job, would they?

bochead - absolutely echo what you say. They make it a marathon and just wait and see who is left standing and what they can get away with.

It's their self-pity I can't stand. The attitude that 'you don't get what you want by shouting loudest you know'. That is the ONLY way you get anything - by screaming at the top of your voice and then they stick their fingers in their ears and go 'la,la,la' for as long as they can

It's ludicrous to pretend that somewhere there is a group of children getting the support they need without their parents shouting. It's even more ridiculous to think that if they weren't spending it on your child they would be spending it on the mythical 'more needy child'. What a croc of shit.

Also, I hate the 'cuts to services' nonsense they wheel out. As if, as parents, we should say, 'oh ok, the country has chosen to spend its money on a dozen foreign wars and overpaid bureaucracies so you've no money left for vulnerable children, hey ho, sorry to trouble you'.

When this is over, I am on the march and I will transform into an autobot to get all these decepticons (sorry Transformer reference - it's DS's current obsession!!)